Holding My Head Up

Pete is really starting to have fun on his belly. When he figured out how to really hold his head up, it was like he was discovering the world for the first time all over again! You could see the fascination and wow in his eyes as he looked around. He has started to grab for toys and pull them to himself to play with. He rolls over well, except when he is really tired! And he is almost able to roll from back to belly too. He has figured out lots of things on his little exer-saucer seat in the picture above. He is a content and happy little guy and we have so much fun with him. We had a great 4th of July too and we found some red, white and blue in his wardrobe, but you have to look closely for the red converse shoes!

Mount Karisimbi - 14,787 ft.

Four of us guys, missionaries in Rwanda, decided a couple months ago to hike Rwanda's tallest peak - Karisimbi. This mountain is part of the Virunga mountains which are extinct volancos. Karisimbi is sometimes snowcapped, thus it's Kinyarwandan name referring to snow. So, we've been training off and on in preparation of our trip.

We started the summit on Wed., July 8th at 7,200 ft. and hiked to base camp which took us about 5hrs. Already we were pretty tired since we carried up all our gear - 26 to 30 lbs for each pack. It was also neat to have about a half dozen Rwandan soldiers with us. They carried AK-47's and one guy had a bazooka. They were protecting their borders but also us from cape bufallo, gorillas, and guerillas. We didn't see any of these three.

The next morning we left at 5:30am with temperatures around 35 degrees. The one pictuture shows us hiking up above tree line. We summited Karisimbi - 14,787 ft - around 9am. It was beautiful. You could see neighboring Congo just yards away with Mt. Mikeno looking back at us (this is the mt. behind us in the last picture). We sat up at the top for about a half hour, singing thanks to the Lord for His Creation. Afterwards, we headed down and out. Rwandan is such a magnificent country. We saw such beautiful scenery, from moss covered trees that were ancient to trees that looked like they were from a Dr. Seuss book.

For my friends and family: Drew Custer: notice my coat and Jordan Clark: my Jacko hiking pole. Both are going strong. And Haley, I'm wearing the hat you and Joe bought me for Christmas. I look good.